1. Introduction
The visual communication of music is a very innovative way of communication. It combines music content with visual elements such as images, animations, and videos, and presents and disseminates music through a variety of visual forms.[1] This mode of communication not only significantly enhances the appeal of music, but also greatly broadens the channels of communication and the scope of the audience. Visual communication is becoming an important trend of music communication in the new media era. On short video platforms such as Douyin platform, the spread of popular music particularly reflects this feature. Tik Tok 's popular music is often presented simultaneously with diverse visual content, such as special effects and well-designed scenes. These elements are perfectly integrated with music content to create a unique visual communication effect and bring users an immersive music experience.
From the perspective of the audience, the use and satisfaction theory provides us with an important perspective to understand the behavior of media use. This theory emphasizes the initiative and selectivity of the audience in the process of media use, and believes that the audience will actively choose and use the media according to their own needs, and obtain psychological or social satisfaction through the use of the media.[2] This paper mainly discusses the three aspects of music visualization communication to meet the user 's entertainment needs, social needs and information acquisition needs.
2. Discussion on the visual-oriented communication of music
2.1. To achieve self-expression, to meet the needs of entertainment and self-realization
In the era of short video, the visual communication of music provides users with a new way of self-expression and entertainment experience. Based on the unique media attributes, the Douyin platform has built a rich entertainment function system, and has gradually become an important platform to meet the entertainment needs and self-realization needs of modern users. With the creative integration of music, pictures and texts, the creators produce vivid and interesting audio-visual works in the immersive scenes of vertical and horizontal screens. While meeting the needs of mass entertainment, they also become a digital stage to show personal talent and emotional expression. The clips are equipped with AR special effects templates, intelligent soundtrack systems and music libraries covering the world 's hot songs. With the ' one-click filming ' tool, the creation cycle is compressed to the minute level, creating an efficient and convenient creation experience. The short video created by users in the clip can be directly jumped and posted on the Tik Tok platform. Such creative short videos can quickly get likes, comments and sharing, attracting fans ' attention. Based on the analysis results of the core indicators such as the completion rate and the amount of interaction based on the algorithm mechanism, Tik Tok will intelligently recommend the user 's works. Even if the new account, as long as the content is high-quality, it can also obtain million-level traffic exposure opportunities. This virtuous cycle of ' creation-interaction-dissemination' of the Tik Tok platform allows high-quality content created by users to be broken and spread, and helps users gradually build personal brands in continuous content output.[3]
The visual communication mode of the tremolo platform enables users to obtain the recognition and appreciation of others through personalized expression in the process of creating short music videos, and to achieve spiritual satisfaction and complete self-value confirmation in positive feedback. This instant and intuitive interaction and feedback mechanism greatly enhances the user 's sense of participation and achievement. More importantly, as users invest more and more time and energy in Tik Tok, they gradually form a deep dependence on the platform. This dependence not only stems from the rich content and convenient functions provided by the platform, but also lies in the satisfaction and sense of belonging established by the user on this platform. These together constitute the emotional bond that the user is difficult to give up on the Tik Tok platform, which effectively enhances the user 's stickiness.
In addition, as a media form with significant entertainment attributes, music short video has gradually become an indispensable pressure relief artifact for modern users, providing extremely effective psychological comfort and positive emotional experience. In the process of watching or participating in the creation of short music videos, users can obtain an immersive audio-visual experience through the multimodal integration of music and visual elements, thus temporarily breaking away from the stressors in real life.[4] It is worth noting that some users tend to incorporate humorous elements when creating short music videos, which is not only an effective way of self-emotion regulation, but also brings great entertainment value to other users. Humorous music video content can often quickly attract users ' attention, be remembered and shared by users, thus further expanding its entertainment influence. In the process of creating and appreciating humorous videos, users can release daily pressure through self-expression, and can also feel the pleasure of being understood in the positive feedback of the audience, thus enhancing their sense of self-identity. At the same time, in the process of watching short videos, the audience not only meets the entertainment needs, but also subtly improves the aesthetic perception ability. From the perspective of communication, there is a significant synergistic effect between the entertainment function of music short video and the user 's self-expression behavior.[5] In the process of participating in visual music communication, users can not only gain a sense of personal accomplishment and social identity through creation and sharing, but also experience emotional resonance and psychological satisfaction when watching other people 's works. These psychological satisfactions include but are not limited to the display of personal talents, the exertion of creativity, the improvement of aesthetic ability and the affirmation of self-worth. This multi-dimensional psychological satisfaction mechanism provides a strong explanation for the continuous growth of user participation in music short video platforms.
2.2. Participate in the music community to meet social needs
The visual communication of music on the new media platform not only innovates the traditional communication mode of music, but also constructs a social ecosystem based on common music interests for users, which greatly meets the diversified needs of modern users in social interaction. On short video platforms such as Tik Tok, users are no longer passive music recipients, but become active participants in music communication. They can actively participate in the discussion of music topics through diversified interactive methods such as likes, comments, and sharing music videos. This creative expression behavior is accurately captured by the platform algorithm, and the system will construct a multi-dimensional music interest map based on user behavior data. When the system algorithm aggregates users with the same music taste into the same virtual space, the new expression needs are further stimulated: users begin to continuously strengthen the social attributes of music expression in the community constructed by the algorithm through in-depth interaction forms such as cooperative video creation, music challenge initiation, and participation in topic co-construction.[6]
For example, the recent short video of ' Da Vinci 's transvestite ', which was widely circulated on the Tik Tok platform, has attracted close attention and active imitation from a large number of users. This kind of short video shows unique creativity by combining dynamic music with vivid visual performance, successfully attracting the attention of a large number of users, forming a follow-up phenomenon that cannot be ignored. By imitating these popular music videos, users not only achieve emotional resonance and value recognition, but also find a sense of participation and belonging in the process. More importantly, this imitation behavior is not a simple copy and paste, but a ' re-creation ' based on personal understanding and creativity.[7] In the process of imitation, users will make appropriate adjustments and innovations according to their own preferences, styles and abilities, so that each imitation has distinct personality characteristics. This kind of imitation-based ' co-creation ' atmosphere not only stimulates users ' creativity, but also further deepens the social connection between users, allowing them to form a closer interaction in the process of watching, imitating and sharing. In this process, the music video creation tool provided by Douyin platform has become the key medium for users to transform the rich emotions contained in music into vivid visual language. At the same time, the Tik Tok platform also provides users with an instant feedback expression scene through real-time interactive forms such as live broadcast. Here, users can interact with the anchor in real time through barrages and comments while watching the live broadcast, put forward their own opinions and suggestions, and even directly ask the anchor to shoot specific types of short videos. This instant feedback mechanism not only deepens the emotional connection between users and the platform, but also provides a steady stream of inspiration and motivation for the creation of music short video.
These communication practices jointly construct a multimodal visual social scene, which greatly enriches the way of community interaction. In the formed music interest community, users continue to carry out a series of in-depth social behaviors such as work sharing, experience exchange and cooperative creation through group chat, one-to-one private letter and other channels. These behaviors not only promote the circulation of information and the sharing of knowledge, but also provide a space for community members to show their talents and exchange ideas. Users show their unique aesthetic taste by creating personalized music videos, gain recognition from other members of the community, and gain a sense of group belonging in community interaction. This social model based on common interests not only provides users with a social way to express themselves and share their feelings, but also shortens the psychological distance between users through continuous interaction and feedback, forming a close community connection. As an advanced form of community interaction, cooperative creation is gradually becoming a trend. Based on common interests and creativity, users work together to create music short video works with unique style and profound connotation across the boundaries of region and identity. This kind of cooperation not only provides a valuable opportunity for community members to show their teamwork ability and achieve common goals, but also improves the quality and influence of their works.
2.3. Broaden communication channels to meet the needs of information acquisition
In the new media era, the way of information dissemination has undergone earth-shaking changes. Among them, the Tik Tok platform has opened up a new channel for the dissemination of music with its unique visual communication mode. Through visual forms such as short videos and musicians ' live broadcasts, the Douyin platform quickly attracts users ' attention with its short, concise, intuitive and vivid characteristics. Through the dual stimulation of vision and hearing, the user 's memory and emotional resonance of music are deepened, and an efficient attention capture mechanism is constructed. Through the three-dimensional communication of sound and picture synchronization, this mode not only strengthens the user 's cognitive depth of music works, but also effectively promotes the user 's immersive experience and memory retention of music emotional connotation through the neurocognitive effect of audio-visual synesthesia.[8]
By using its advanced algorithm recommendation mechanism, the platform realizes the accurate matching and personalized push of music content. This mechanism can intelligently analyze users ' interest preferences and historical behavior data, so that music content with different styles and user tastes can be accurately pushed to their eyes. This highly personalized mode of communication not only greatly improves the efficiency and accuracy of music information dissemination, but also breaks the barriers of traditional music communication in time and space, so that music can cross the boundaries of region, language and culture, and reach the global user groups in a more efficient and intuitive way. At the same time, through the spontaneous creation, sharing and interaction of users, some unpopular songs can gain exposure and attention on the Tik Tok platform, which in turn leads to large-scale discussion and singing. This bottom-up communication mode not only injects new vitality into the diversified development of music, but also provides a broader display stage and growth space for music creators.
The platform not only provides users with a large amount of music resources, but also meets the user 's demand for personalized access to music information through an intelligent content distribution mechanism.[9] Users can quickly obtain the music content they are interested in by searching keywords, browsing recommendation lists and other ways. Tik Tok 's music list brings together the most popular songs on the platform. These songs often represent the current music trend and provide users with a channel to quickly understand and follow the trend; the active dynamics of musicians enable users to observe the creative process and life of musicians at close range, which increases users ' sense of intimacy and identity with musicians and their works. Although these contents do not necessarily cover in-depth music industry analysis or professional information, they can keep up with the trend of the trend, reflect the popular trend of the music market and user preferences, so as to meet the user 's demand for real-time perception of music popular wind direction to a certain extent.
In addition, through the deep integration of music and visual elements, the visual music communication of Douyin platform enables users to understand the cultural stories and social phenomena behind music while enjoying different styles of music works. Specifically, some of the video content on the platform is not only a simple presentation of music, but also contains a deep interpretation of the cultural aspects of music creation background, lyrics meaning, and music style. These videos allow users to see the cultural heritage behind the music through vivid pictures and professional music analysis. At the same time, user comments and barrage interaction provide users with a platform for free communication. They can share their feelings about music, explore the relationship between music and society, and even put forward their own opinions and suggestions on music creation. This all-round way of information acquisition not only broadens the user 's vision, but also stimulates the user 's desire to explore and think deeply about music culture, satisfies the user 's deep demand for information, and realizes the multi-dimensional information presentation of music and its cultural background.
3. Conclusion
Based on the theory of use and gratification, this study deeply analyzes the unique role of Douyin platform in the visual communication of music, and provides theoretical basis and practical guidance for the formulation of music communication strategies. The research shows that the visual communication strategy of Douyin platform realizes the organic unity of entertainment, social networking and information acquisition. Through the creation and sharing of short music videos, the Douyin platform provides users with a space for interactive communication and expression of personality, so that music consumption changes from passive reception to active creation. In this space, users not only gain entertainment experience and realize self-worth, but also realize social interaction through the dissemination of works, forming a strong sense of community belonging. Based on this, the Douyin platform breaks through the one-way interaction mode of the traditional music community, and successfully constructs a social ecosystem with music as a link, which not only meets the deep needs of users for social connections, but also provides a channel for self-display value realization. Through real-time interactive scenes such as live broadcast, the Tik Tok platform further promotes users to form close emotional connections in virtual space. Furthermore, the algorithm recommendation mechanism of Douyin platform realizes the accurate matching and personalized touch of music content, breaks the time and space constraints of traditional music communication, broadens the channels of music communication, meets the users ' real-time acquisition and personalized needs of music information, and builds a decentralized music communication network.
The rise of short video platform provides an unprecedented visual carrier for music communication. Compared with the one-way communication mode of traditional media, the video duration design of Tik Tok platform is adapted to the fragmented consumption scene of mobile Internet users, forming a unique communication advantage. The innovation of this carrier not only reduces the threshold of music consumption, but also promotes the ' viral ' spread through the creative methods created by users. In the future, with the further development of short video technology, the visual communication of music will be more diversified and intelligent, bringing more abundant music experience and social interaction opportunities to users. At the same time, the Tik Tok platform should continue to optimize the content distribution mechanism, strengthen the cultivation of the user community, and further improve the effect of music communication and user satisfaction. Future research can further explore the long-term impact of short video platforms in music communication, and how to continuously improve users ' music experience and sense of participation through technological innovation and content optimization.
References
[1]. Ma Xiaozhe. From auditory to visual experience: visual communication of music [ J ]. Musical Spacetime, 2015, (10): 111.
[2]. Lu Heng. Use and Satisfaction : A Labeled Theory [ J ].International Press, 2011,33 ( 02 ) : 11-18.DOI : 10.13495 / j.cnki.cjjc.2011.02.012.
[3]. Zhao Xiaolei. Brief analysis of the propagation characteristics of barrage video [ J ].Western Radio and Television, 2017, ( 01 ) : 17.
[4]. Lu Ran. Research on visual design innovation in the new media environment [ J ].Daguan, 2025, ( 01 ) : 27-29.
[5]. Huang Xiaoyin, Qiu Zihao. Technology Empowerment and Emotional Interaction : Research on Visual Music Communication of Douyin Platform [ J ]. Journal of Southwest Minzu University ( Humanities and Social Sciences Edition ), 2019,40 ( 08 ) : 156-161.
[6]. Cao Junjun, Zhao Zhian. Review of New Ideas and Methods of Music Communication Research in the New Media Era [ J ]. Chinese Music, 2024, ( 06 ) : 47-61.DOI : 10.13812 / j.cnki.cn11-1379 / j.2024.06.005.
[7]. Mei Ao, Hou Zhishuai. Originality identification of short video initial creation and re-creation [ J ].Journal of Wuhan University of Science and Technology ( Social Science Edition ), 2025,27 ( 01 ) : 25-32.
[8]. Yang Yu, Hu Di. Visual Immersion and Multi-Diffusion : Music Dissemination of Tik Tok Short Video Platform [ J ]. Audiovisual, 2021, ( 02 ) : 57-60.DOI : 10.13994 / j.cnki.stj.2021.02.013.
[9]. Xu Qiang. Recommendation algorithm and user experience optimization in short video marketing [ J ].Modern marketing ( late issue ), 2025, ( 04 ) : 67-69.DOI : 10.19932 / j.cnki.22-1256 / F.2025.04.067.
Cite this article
Yang,Z. (2025). Exploring the Effect of Visualization and Communication of Popular Music with the Example of Douyin Platform. Communications in Humanities Research,67,12-17.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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References
[1]. Ma Xiaozhe. From auditory to visual experience: visual communication of music [ J ]. Musical Spacetime, 2015, (10): 111.
[2]. Lu Heng. Use and Satisfaction : A Labeled Theory [ J ].International Press, 2011,33 ( 02 ) : 11-18.DOI : 10.13495 / j.cnki.cjjc.2011.02.012.
[3]. Zhao Xiaolei. Brief analysis of the propagation characteristics of barrage video [ J ].Western Radio and Television, 2017, ( 01 ) : 17.
[4]. Lu Ran. Research on visual design innovation in the new media environment [ J ].Daguan, 2025, ( 01 ) : 27-29.
[5]. Huang Xiaoyin, Qiu Zihao. Technology Empowerment and Emotional Interaction : Research on Visual Music Communication of Douyin Platform [ J ]. Journal of Southwest Minzu University ( Humanities and Social Sciences Edition ), 2019,40 ( 08 ) : 156-161.
[6]. Cao Junjun, Zhao Zhian. Review of New Ideas and Methods of Music Communication Research in the New Media Era [ J ]. Chinese Music, 2024, ( 06 ) : 47-61.DOI : 10.13812 / j.cnki.cn11-1379 / j.2024.06.005.
[7]. Mei Ao, Hou Zhishuai. Originality identification of short video initial creation and re-creation [ J ].Journal of Wuhan University of Science and Technology ( Social Science Edition ), 2025,27 ( 01 ) : 25-32.
[8]. Yang Yu, Hu Di. Visual Immersion and Multi-Diffusion : Music Dissemination of Tik Tok Short Video Platform [ J ]. Audiovisual, 2021, ( 02 ) : 57-60.DOI : 10.13994 / j.cnki.stj.2021.02.013.
[9]. Xu Qiang. Recommendation algorithm and user experience optimization in short video marketing [ J ].Modern marketing ( late issue ), 2025, ( 04 ) : 67-69.DOI : 10.19932 / j.cnki.22-1256 / F.2025.04.067.